ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ROLL CALL VOTING IN THE U.S. CONGRESS IN 1975 AND 1979

This article argues that the energy and environmental policy areas in Congress are no longer considered components of the government management dimension. The two policy areas have separated from the government management dimension constructed by Clausen and are now distinct and autonomous Congressional policy areas. The models of roll call voting for energy and environment issues are very different. Energy is tied more closely to technical considerations while environmental issues are more emotional and more closely tied to quality of life concerns.     

Courtroom Applications of Virtual Environments, Immersive Virtual Environments, and Collaborative Virtual Environments

This article examines the possibilities and implications of employing virtual environments (VEs), immersive virtual environments (IVEs), and collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) in the courtroom. We argue that the immersive and interactive reality created by these tools adds significant value as a simulation of experience to enhance courtroom practice. The obvious boundaries between real and virtual enhance the attractiveness of these tools as technologies of rhetorical persuasion that can be used to demonstrate subjective perspective, strengthen or impeach the credibility of witnesses, and provide the trier of fact with a better understanding of each side's perception of the facts at issue. The article introduces the concepts of VEs, IVEs, and CVEs, describes the manners in which these technologies have been applied to settings other than the courts system, and review the relevant psychological and legal literature. It discusses specific applications of the technology to the court system and suggests how it could improve upon current procedures. Finally, it discusses some of the limitations and problems, and suggests legal reforms necessary to the adoption of these technologies, specifically rules of procedure that provide for all parties to be able to access, manipulate and inspect any virtual environment, the trier of fact to be able to interact with, rather than just accept the lawyer's rendition, and rules that provide for the parties to introduce at trial an inventory of all digital assets contained in the virtual environment, making those that are stipulated to and those that are in controversy.     

SCALE ECONOMIES AND IRON LAWS: MERGERS AND DEMERGERS IN WHITEHALL 1971–1984

Between 1971 and 1984 there were ten cases of merger or demerger in British central government departments, ranging in importance from the massive DTI demerger into four distinct departments (1973) to the absorption by the Lord Chancellor's Department of the Office of the Public Trustee (1982). By analysis of changes in aggregate indices of 'top staff', 'middle staff', ratio of administrative grades to total staff, salary costs relative to total budget, budget relative to total Government budget, and staff relative to total Civil Service staff, some common hypotheses about the rationale and effects of such bureau-shuffling are explored. It is found that, if anything, like attracts unlike (in terms of these indices); that change in scale creates neither economies nor diseconomies; that reorganization does not inevitably produce cost escalation (the 'Iron Law of Prodigality'); but that the 'Iron Law of Inertia' (reorganization in practice has little observable effect on bureaucratic structure and working) is supported by the observed results.     

POLICY MAKING AND THE DEMONSTRATION EFFECT: PRIVATIZATION IN A DEPRIVED REGION

The aims of public policies are not always clearly articulated by ministers. Further the aims that are stated may not reflect all – or indeed the most important – aims. In some cases declared policy aims bear little relationship to the real intentions of ministers in undertaking an initiative. In other cases policy decisions are intended as symbolic statements, demonstrating government attitudes on a range of issues beyond the specific matter under consideration. These ideas are explored in the context of the privatizations of Harland and Wolff and Shorts, two major industrial government-owned companies in Northern Ireland. The article concludes that government sought to use the privatizations as a symbolic statement, namely to demonstrate that the heavy dependence on the public sector within Northern Ireland had to be reduced.     

CHARACTERIZING AGRICULTURAL POLICY-MAKING

This article examines the contemporary agricultural policy-making environment in Britain and suggests that the growing complexity of interest articulation and policy making has eroded NFU dominance as a peak association. We would suggest that it is this clientelistic attitude to agriculture rather than a specific relationship with one interest group (however influential) that shapes the agricultural agenda. This article rejects a version of events which sees policy outputs as being the result of exclusive MAFF/NFU interactions as exaggerating policy-making closure, and the exclusion of environmental and other externality interests. It portrays the policy sector as fragmented and competitive, with a wide cast list of pressure participants all vying for policy influence. It identifies flexible policy communities operating at the sub-sectoral level, and within such arrangements the NFU often has to defer to the specialist or niche expertise of single commodity groups or agricultural processing companies.     

‘Meeting the Challenge’? The Liberal Democrats' Policy Review of 2005–2006

Even before the 2005 election, the Liberal Democrats' Federal Policy Committee had agreed on the need for a review of party policy, in response both to domestic and international political developments since 2001. Intended to build upon the 2002 policy document 'It's About Freedom', 2005 heralded the launch of a Meeting the Challenge policy review, which provided an unprecedented opportunity for party members at all levels to contribute towards the refinement of Liberal Democrat policies and develop a clearer political narrative. This would enable the party to articulate its principles and goals more effectively in the run-up to the next general election. Through a variety of intra-party channels, conduits and forums, hundreds of responses from party members, and local and regional Liberal Democrat parties, offered analyses and policy suggestions. On various issues, these revealed ongoing debates between the party's ( Orange Book ) 'liberals' and 'social democrats'. The outcome of this intra-party consultation exercise was the 2006 policy document 'Trust in People', which was emphatically endorsed at the party's annual conference. This will now provide the framework for further policy development and clarification during the next two years.